Berwyn, Brookfield, Villa Park Questions (Chicago, Cicero: sales, real estate, apartment)

[mr_sullivan]

Anyone know if Berwyn is making any improvements? I love the brick bungalows and am very interested in buying there but I heard the schools are so-so and the high school (Morton East)is especially bad and infested with gangs. Is this true? Can Berwyn kids go to Oak Park schools? If I knew they were making changes and improvements, especially to the schools, I would buy a home there right away, but I cant seem to find any info yet.

I grew up in a sort of rough neighborhood on the southside of Chicago so I'm not scared of blacks and mexicans like most white people from the burbs. I actually think racially diverse towns are a good thing for many reasons. I AM, however, scared of my children getting hurt by gangs. I HATE GANGS!!! Any school or town with a gang problem is not a place I want to be.

I'm also considering Brookfield. They have a comprehensive community improvement plan and the schools are good. It has always been a nice town but the homes in my price range are small and overpriced. Villa Park seems nice too. Anyone have any info or advice on these towns and their schools?
I would greatly appreciate any and all comments. Thanks!

[ITChick]

Originally Posted by mr_sullivan

Anyone know if Berwyn is making any improvements? I love the brick bungalows and am very interested in buying there but I heard the schools are so-so and the high school (Morton East)is especially bad and infested with gangs. Is this true? Can Berwyn kids go to Oak Park schools? If I knew they were making changes and improvements, especially to the schools, I would buy a home there right away, but I cant seem to find any info yet.

I grew up in a sort of rough neighborhood on the southside of Chicago so I'm not scared of blacks and mexicans like most white people from the burbs. I actually think racially diverse towns are a good thing for many reasons. I AM, however, scared of my children getting hurt by gangs. I HATE GANGS!!! Any school or town with a gang problem is not a place I want to be.

I'm also considering Brookfield. They have a comprehensive community improvement plan and the schools are good. It has always been a nice town but the homes in my price range are small and overpriced. Villa Park seems nice too. Anyone have any info or advice on these towns and their schools?
I would greatly appreciate any and all comments. Thanks!

Well, Brookfield has that famous zoo there. And they do have a lot of those nice brick bungalows that Chicago is famous for. Not sure about the schools in any of those places you mentioned (there is a site to checkout school ratings by town name/state-use a search engine to find it as links are not allowed in this forum).

Villa Park has affordable homes and lots of shopping. I like that area and visit there often (have a relative who lives there). Others have mentioned in this forum that they don't like the area so it's a place you'll have to visit to decide if it's right for you.

I don't think your children can go to Oak Park schools if you live in Berwyn. If I'm wrong on that, someone please correct me. Oak Park is a nice suburb, but very expensive.

Gangs are everywhere, so I would look more at the ratings of the schools than where the gangs could be.

[citygrl707]

Morton east was bad when i went there over ten years ago alot of gangs, my sister lives in brookfield and the her son is in highschool. I was born and raised in chicago not a good area. Over all brookfield is still nice and quiet and better for your kids.

[karaT]

I am also considering Brookfield bc of its location.....does anyone know about it?

[peppepizza]

Villa Park was a nice neighborhood untill 2000. I have a pizza place there for over 20 years. It was the kind of town where everyone knew everyone. Like Mayberry.

The north part of town is getting really bad with gangs . Anything north of St.Charles road has gone down hill in the last 5 years.

The White Hen on Ardmore is closing on the 15 of August . To many problems in front of the store and sales going down every year for the last five years . Keep in mind that this White Hen was very busy up untill the area changed.

If you can afford it Glen Ellyn is nice but expensive . Great schools as well.

Stay out of Glendale Heights . They are Getting bad to . In the last 6 months I have had my tires slashed, house paint balled, car broke into, they even tried to get into the house .

[Shelley]

I live in Berwyn. I grew up in Berwyn and then moved here about 5 years ago with husband and kids. I am an educator and I plan to send my 3 kids to Emerson school in Berwyn. Irving school on the south side of town has the highest test scores with something like 90% of the kids meeting or exceeding standards in math. I think this is an awesome community. Kids from Berwyn do NOT go to Morton East. They go to Morton West. There is a new Superintendent there and a brand new principal. They are trying a new model next year with a "small schools" concept. There is a very new, "grass roots" organization called Citizens Aligned to Renew Education for Students (CARES) that is working on increasing involvement from the community in the school systems. There will be an advisory referendum on the November ballot asking voters their opinion about consolidating the 2 Berwyn elementary districts (98 and 100 ) with Morton West high school to form a consolidated unit (K-12) district. This is very progressive, creative thinking. I think Berwyn is a great value because of its good housing stock (beautiful bungalows, victorians, etc.) proximity to the city (15 minute Metra ride, plus access to the blue line via 54th or the Eisenhower), and mostly the best neighbors I could ask for. Here are some links to learn more about Berwyn:

http://www.berwyninformer.com/

http://www.berwyntalk.com/smf/

http://webprod1.isbe.net/ereportcard...rd&city=BERWYN

Good luck!

[giftsgalore60534]

Berwyn is not so much a Gang problem as it is a stupid teacher issue I personally was kicked out of Moron HS (no that is NOT a typo) before I ever got in due to the fact that my 8th grade principal hated me and got me kicked out of Hiawatha (yes this was a while ago) HOWEVER my brother who is 4 years younger than me just graduated in 2004 from Moron and it is even worse that it was in 2000. Kids do fight but thats at every HS in Berwyn the only so called "gang" there is is 26 and I tell you that "gang" is nothing but taggers although they would like to think they are a "gang" if they went into the city from Berwyn they would NOT survive against the other true Chicago area "gangs"... I would STRONGLY reccomend moving to OakPark or Forest Park as the Elementry, Grade and High Schools are great everyone I know that went to OPRF has gone on to bigger & better things after graduating while MOST of Morons students have done one of a few things...

1.) sat watching tv in their parents house eating themselves to death
2.) gotten "knocked up" and became single parents
3.) went to Moron College and worked at McDonald's (or OTHER fast food joints) since they were 16
4.) killed themselves
5.) drank themselves to death
6.) died of an overdose
7.) married because they were "knocked up" had the baby and are already divorced
8.) were genisus that were ignored what the idiots said and went on to prove those at Moron wrong and started their own company and are working on making it with a husband and kids...

BTW just a side note for ITChick yes Berwyn students CAN go to OPRF but ONLY if you pay the out of district fees for them to be able to do so...

Oh and also for Shelley I have lived in and around Berwyn since I was 8 and I will be 24 in December so I have been here for 16 years and it has NOT gotten better... Well at least not the schools anyhow... I am moving into Stickney so my son can stay in his school that he was in while we lived in Lyons last year... I love Home school and the teachers there are amazing... I would NEVER send my children to district 100 no matter how many changes they make unless they fire EVERY SINGLE person in ANY type of charge in district 100 (minus Mrs. Rez the art teacher) and start with a full new slate thats about the ONLY way I would send my boys to Dist. 100

[PeaceLove]

Well, I'm 17 years old and I've lived in Berwyn all my life. I attended Morton West Highschool freshman and sophmore year, and then I started home schooling.I have to say... MWHS is one sorry excuse for a school. You'd think they'd have a little bit more control... I remember my freshman year, I went to the bathroom and a hispanic kid was in there bumping coke off of his school i.d.
How wonderful, yes? Oh and the fights, to be honest, they were actually quite amusing, especially when their would be 20+ kids all walking down the block....at the same time...getting ready for a fight,couldn't be more conspicuous, eh? You couldn't go one day without seeing at least one fight. I remember a couple in particular... A couple girls started fighting in the middle of the crowded hallway next to D hall, and one of the girls slammed the other ones head into a trophy case... I don't remember how it was broken up..Oh and this senior punched this other guy in the face and put him in a coma..Oh how wonderful morton was /sarcasm. It was also sad to see so many kids in 'study hall'. Which is where you are put when you get kicked out of a class, or fail. What I'm trying to get at here,seriously, if you have kids, and plan on putting them in morton west, think twice. Hey, well at least some of the criminals are nice, my grandmother was robbed while walking up the steps to her apartment, a black guy politely asked her for her purse and she gave it up without a second thought. He could have shoved her down the stairs, or did something equally harmful >_<
I can't wait until I turn 18, bye bye berwyn!!


PeaceLoveHappiness

[cavewoman]

I spent my entire life in Berwyn..and you are talking 30 plus years. Yes they have some great homes if you don't mind being on top of your neighbor.
What is great is the location to downtown....
so close to everything.
Is it getting better.... yes, in time. I still have friends and family there...you may just have to wait a lil....

[def]

Brookfield is a great little town but the real estate prices are ridiculous even to the people I know that have sold their homes there. The homes are mainly shacks waiting to be razed and turned into condos or townhomes which they may or may not be zoned for? If they enforced a blight law, three quarters of the town would have to remodel their houses. The town, though, is trying (finally) to become LaGrange East and is building condos and townhomes wherever they can find space as well as paving a few streets now and then. There are still bargains to be found though if you look hard enough. The Hollywood area of Brkfld is still ok with cute elementary schools.

As far as gangs are concerned, Brookfield, Lyons, Berwyn, Cicero, North Riverside, Villa Park, Forest Park and a few others are being overrun by latino (mexican) gangs, some more quickly than others (Brookfield unfortunately is succumbing pretty quickly). Cicero is a lost cause and Berwyn is right next door so what are the odds of it NOT spilling over? Just look for cowboy hats, land barges with temp plates and bass boosters blasting down the streets and you'll know you're in the wrong place to raise a kid.

The only decent schools in the area anymore IMHO are LT, OPRF, Hinsdale and maybe a few more away from the towns listed above. The Brookfield elementary and Junior Highs are good as well for now. The Morton schools (E & W) are both heavily populated with latino gangs as are the Villa Park H.S.'s I've driven by. I have a neice that attended MWHS a decade ago and it was bad then.

I only know this stuff because I live amongst the afforementioned gang bangers and I'm looking for a place to move where these people don't exist. I also have close family and friends in these other areas and frequently attend functions at the elementary and high schools.

I'm hoping that soon the Berwyn/Cicero/Brookfield areas will become gentrified and overrun with Yuppers looking for a nice jumping off point to the city as well as large lots and nice sized affordable houses. Come on Down!